Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Millburn Parents Against Charter Schools is a diverse group of local residents in Millburn Township who are opposed to the recent applications by HanYu International Academy (Livingston)and Hua Mei School (Maplewood) for school charters that would recruit students and funding from the Millburn public school system without a democratic vote.

Millburn Township has the highest rated public high school in the state of New Jersey, and one of the highest performing school districts in the country.

We, the undersigned, write to you today as concerned parents and taxpayers with a common voice and the following set of resolutions:

Millburn Township does not have a need for Charter Schools.

Decisions to alter the existing, constitutionally sound, "thorough and efficient" curriculum within the district should flow, exclusively, through our local School Board.

Any Charter School applications should be put to a vote by local residents and/or their locally elected School Board representatives. This includes schools that may reside in other jurisdictions, but will seek to tax our residents.

Authorization for Charter Schools should rest, exclusively, at the local level, unless the State can demonstrate that the local public school system is failing.

"Boutique" Charter School applications that strive to organize around a given ethnicity, gender, race, language, or religion will balkanize our community and should be removed from the public school system entirely. Public school segregation should be an artifact for the history books. "Boutique" schools should turn to private funding for support.

We support legislation that puts Charter School authorization into the hands of local residents. (Senate Bill 2243)

We oppose legislation that seeks to maintain exclusive authorization at the State level.

We request that the Commissioner of Education declare a moratorium on all new Charter School applications in the state of New Jersey until the legislative framework for new Charter Schools can be resolved.

Charter schools may be innovative and effective in failing school districts.In successful school districts, like Millburn, they only serve to undermine the efforts of successful educators and the citizens they serve.

The approval of "boutique schools" without local voting amounts to "taxation without representation" and puts the desires of special interest groups ahead of the community at large.

This result is undemocratic and at odds with our constitution.

As our elected representatives, we look forward to your support of these resolutions and trust that our views will be incorporated into the legislative process.

Sincerely,

Matthew Stewart

Chairperson

Millburn Parents Against Charter Schools

To join in just send your family name, address, school attended, and # of children in the school district to: